


Ink Lines

by thekatthatbarks



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:28:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23773852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekatthatbarks/pseuds/thekatthatbarks
Summary: Sai’s eyes followed her as she moved. They traced the lines of her, curves and sharp edges, as she all but flew through the air. Her movements were fast and heavy, slamming her fist into the rubble and splintering trees. Sai couldn’t help but think about how beautiful she looked, that vicious smile on her face, the sweat of her brow, the scars the littered her skin. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to catch it on paper; nothing would be able to do her justice.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Sai
Comments: 9
Kudos: 144





	Ink Lines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mouseymightymarvellous](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mouseymightymarvellous/gifts).



Sai’s eyes followed her as she moved. They traced the lines of her, curves and sharp edges, as she all but flew through the air. Her movements were fast and heavy, slamming her fist into the rubble and splintering trees. Sai couldn’t help but think about how beautiful she looked, that vicious smile on her face, the sweat of her brow, the scars the littered her skin. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to catch it on paper; nothing would be able to do her justice.

Kakashi avoided another near attack, doing his best to not get caught by her skilled hands. Yamato came up beside him, leaning against the tree Sai sat at. “Something wrong with Sakura?”

Sai gave him a moment’s glance before looking back to her. “I don’t think so. Why?”

Yamato shrugged, a small smile on his face that Sai didn’t see. “Oh, nothing. You were just watching her closely.”

Sai shifted against the tree, a movement he’d learned was nervous. He offered a lie, “Just watching the spar, Yamato-taichou.”

He forced his eyes to Kakashi every now and then, but they kept wandering back to Sakura.

***

“Sai, come here.” Sakura peaked her head out of her tent with a wave of her hand and disappeared as quickly.

Sai got up from his place by the fire and went to her. He wasn’t on watch and it wasn’t like he could’ve denied her anyway. He found it hard to deny anything Sakura asked of him these days.

He slipped into her tent to see her sitting on her bedroll, medical supplies surrounding her and dressed only in her bindings and black shorts. Sai felt his heart stutter at the picture she made.

She gestured at the tent opening and told him, “Zip it back up. I don’t want the cold to get in.”

Sai did as he was told and went to sit beside her. He cleared his throat. “What did you need?”

Sakura looked at him with a tired smile and turned so her back was to him. “I used up a lot of chakra healing you and Kakashi earlier. There are a few cuts on my back, aren’t there? Can you clean them up for me? I can’t reach them.”

Sai’s eyes went to the dark red wounds along her back. He didn’t think _cuts_ was the right word to describe the gashes along her back, barely missing her spine. He felt his jaw lock, thinking she was lucky they weren’t that deep. He was sure her shirt was probably ruined, if not by the tears then by all the blood.

He looked for a cloth in the mess around her, telling her, “Of course, Sakura.”

She found it for him, then handed him a bowl of warm water. Sai dipped the cloth in the water and gently dabbed at her back, the blue fabric quickly becoming sticky with red as he worked. Sakura winced when he grazed her wounds and he didn’t look forward to pouring the disinfectant over them. He cleaned her up as well as he could and reached for the disinfectant, covering another small cloth in it before dabbing across the cuts, starting with the smaller ones first.

Sakura hissed through her teeth and arched her back slightly. Sai’s other hand went to her hip, his thumb stroking across her skin soothingly. He did it without thought and almost pulled away but then she covered his hand with her own. His voice was quiet as he moved on to the longest gash under her shoulder blade. “Sorry, Sakura.”

She shook her head at the apology, her fingers tightening around his as he went along the edges of the wound. He regretfully told her, pulling his hand away from her so he could grab the right supplies. “Some of these need stitches.”

A bitter laugh fell from her lips. “Of course, they do.”

Sai cut the thread and slipped it through a needle. “I’m nowhere near a medic, but I can at least do this.”

He placed the heel of his palm near the smallest gash but waited for her response, “I trust you, Sai.”

His chest felt tight and he didn’t reply before tending to the wound. Sakura was trying to not move as he worked, being the good patient she liked to see, but he could hear the quiet gasps and groans of pain that slipped from her mouth. Sai worked as quickly as he could without doing a bad job. He got to the last cut when he realized the end of it dipped into her bindings, the edges of the white soaked in red.

“One of them goes through your bindings.” His voice was soft, hesitant to cut them without her consent. They were shinobi and modesty wasn't really a trait many of them had. But Sai wasn’t unfeeling and understood the need to ask regardless.

Sakura sighed and reached near her for a blanket to hold against her chest. “Cut them.”

Sai nodded out of sight and pulled a kunai out from his pouch, cutting the bindings away with one movement. The shreds of them fell to her sides and Sakura pulled them from her front and tossed them to the mess of bloody cotton they had near them.

Sai hesitated once more, sympathy coating his throat. “Sakura, this one is... Do you have any pain medication or – “

She shook her head. “None of them would work fast enough. It’s fine, Sai. I can handle it.”

Sai sighed, wishing he knew some medical ninjutsu, but he didn’t. Her skin glistened with sweat where he laid his other hand to keep her steady. He focused on the gash and thread in his hand, trying his best to tune out the small sounds that escaped Sakura. At some point, he noticed her covering her mouth with her hand and paused for a second. He rubbed his hand up and down her arm and told her in what he hoped was a soothing voice, “I’m almost done, Sakura.”

She wordlessly nodded and he went back to stitching. After he was finally finished, he grabbed the gauze and bandages all the cuts. Sakura didn’t move from her spot, leaning her head in her hand as she breathed out. Sai cleaned up the area around them, putting her supplies back in her bag haphazardly knowing she would rearrange it all later anyway.

He pulled gently on her shoulder until she laid down on her side on her bedroll. She looked up at him tiredly as he stood up. “Just stay in here.”

Sai gave her a small smile and nodded. He normally shared a tent with Yamato, but he supposed it didn’t matter. He could still find him easily when it was his shift for watch.

***

She had invited him over for dinner and Sai only remembered the book when they were cleaning up afterwards. Sakura looked over at him curiously as he stepped towards his pack that he’d laid on her counter. He handed the book to her a moment later and Sakura dried her hands before taking it. She gave him a confused smile, her eyes light. “Sai, what is this for?”

She turned the book over in her hands and Sai ignored the nervous beating of his heart – there was no reason to be nervous, he knew that, but he couldn’t reason it out of himself. “When you were telling me about that medical jutsu you were working on, I remembered seeing this book at the library. I think it would help with your research. It took me a while but I finally found it again yesterday.”

Sakura’s expression softened and she chuckled softly, her eyes still on the book in her hands. But it was like she was looking through it. “You really do pay attention when I tell you things, don’t you?”

Sai looked at her confused, a smile threatening his lips. “Well, yes. I care about you and what you share with me is important to me.”

He wasn’t prepared for the emotion in her eyes when she looked up at him, setting the book down on the table as she stepped towards him. Her fingers twisted in his shirt and she pulled him, her other hand catching his face as she pressed her lips against his.

Sai felt his breath catch in his chest and she met his eyes as she pulled back. The curve of her lips turned into a nervous smile. She bit her lip as she looked at him and Sai leaned forward to kiss her, his hands going to her face and hip. Sakura smiled into the kiss and the feeling that gave him rivaled the actual action of kissing her.

He knew it was a clumsy kiss, he didn’t know what he was doing. But as her lips moved with his and natural instinct took over, he figured it out. It was almost overwhelming how she made him feel, how full his chest was. But he didn't think he could ever give it up.

***

She was on top of him as they laid on her couch, cuddled against his chest. It had become a habit of theirs. Him slipping into her apartment after he got back from an ANBU mission, holding her tight throughout the night. She always made pancakes in the morning with two sugars in his coffee. Then, pulled him to her couch and crawled on top of him. The routine was comforting, and Sai didn’t like to admit how off kilter he felt when she was out on her own mission when he came back and missed out on it.

The weight of her grounded him and his hands absent mindedly stroked across her skin as he looked out her window at the sky. She sighed softly against him as his hand slipped under shirt and his fingers ran along her spine.

“Why do you do that?” Her quiet mumble brought him out of his thoughts.

Sai guessed she was talking about his hands and he asked back, “Does it bother you?”

“No, it’s nice.”

Sai smiled, his fingers going back down her back. “Tracing the lines of your body.”

Sakura snorted and nuzzled her face into his chest. She commented softly, “Ever the artist.”

***

He would’ve understood if she had said no. He knew it was an odd request, but Sakura had only smiled and shrugged. “Sure, I think I’d like that.”

He was forever grateful – _with a hint of incredulity_ – that she seemed to like all his weird quirks.

She was laying on her stomach on his bed, her bare skin visible with her clothes having been shed to the floor. Sai sat beside her, a brush and ink set next to him as his eyes lingered along her curves. Sakura peaked an eye at him from where her head rested on top of her crossed arms. “Is this okay?”

He knew she was asking about the position she was in, but his answer held more meaning when he told her, “You’re perfect.”

Sakura blushed a faint pink that made his heart squeeze and closed her eyes again.

The first stroke of his brush against her skin made her shiver and he dragged the ink down the curve of her back in a smooth line. He glanced at her face when he raised the brush. “How does it feel?”

She smiled into her arms. “Soothing.”

Sai drew another line and watched as she seemed to melt into the bed. Black ink traced the lines of her, and her skin was soaked in his attention. It was almost reminiscent of her the marks that appeared across her skin from her strength of a hundred healings. His brush dipped into the crevice of her knee and he dragged the brush along the curve of her leg, smiling when he noticed her smother a giggle into her arms.

He grabbed another color and repeated the process. He didn’t know how long he had been doing it, but Sakura had colored lines all across the back of her body. He was about to turn her over when he looked down at her face, her lips parted as she breathed softly. Maybe it was as relaxing as she said, and she’d dozed off at some point.

He smiled and dipped his brush in red ink before bringing it to her back. He mindlessly wrote words across her skin. The safety of her back letting him say things he didn’t know how to articulate out loud.

There was only one jagged line on her skin by the end of the night and it was from when she had opened her eyes to look at him, telling him in a warm voice, as quite as his bristles stroking her skin, “I love you too, Sai.”

She joked later about having the words tattooed into her skin in his handwriting. Sai didn’t tell her that he knew a jutsu that could do that without a needle, not wanting her skin to be tainted by him. Not like that, not permanently.

He finally told her years later when he noticed her asking around about tattoo artists nearby. Years afterwards and his breath still caught, his chest tight whenever his eyes landed on the black along her spine.

_I love you._


End file.
